topic Re: Do you live.....? in Home

Do you live.....?

151949 — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:09:30 GMT

Do you live near an area of shops, bars , restaurants etc where you can walk to go out for entertainment? I think I would love to live in a walking community. Or do you live in the country far from your neighbors? I grew up on a farm but where our house was situated on the property there was a cluster of 4 homes all easily walkable. My parents were close with our neighbors.Or do you live in a suburban plan of homes? A city highrise or a beach house out in the middle of the woods? Small town or big city? Where do you live?

I live in a planned community, in a small town. I always say we have one of everything - one grocery store, one dry cleaners , one carwash , one hardware store etc etc but only one of each. Except restaurants - tons of restaurants. At our age we don't usually walk into town but if we were younger we could , it is about 2 miles. We are also only 1 1/2 miles from a beautiful beach.

Re: Do you live.....?

Marsha2003 — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:40:52 GMT

I live in a town that is in the suburbs. The town itself is walkable, but not from my house as I live atop a very steep hill. I think I will move one more time to a neighborhood with better walkability.

Re: Do you live.....?

ID2 — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:48:05 GMT

For the past 18 years we lived within walking distance of a very predominant mall. Loved it! I had everything within a short drive! We just moved and now live on a lake near a very rural community. I love this way of life too. I just can't get over looking out my front window and not see a house across the street. For 60 years I lived in the suburbs in neighborhoods. Such a refreshing change now to see my lake 24/7.

Re: Do you live.....?

ChynnaBlue — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:49:56 GMT

I'm in walking distance of two ugly strip malls. One has a terrible Chinese place, a mediocre donut shop, a trophy store, a 7-11 with a BBQ food truck in the corner of the lot, and a pretty good Cajun restaurant, a Papa John's and a Pizza Hut at opposite ends.

The other side of the road has the second strip mall with an excellent donut shop, a nail salon, a Sno-Cone trailer, a taco food truck that's supposedly pretty good but only open when I'm at work, a yoga place, a music store, and a quilt shop.

In the winter, I'll walk to the Cajun place, but in the summer, even a 10-minute walk is too much when it's 97 degrees after 5pm.

All in all, I still don't consider myself in a walkable part of town, but my rent also reflects that. I'd be paying 2-3 times as much if I lived in the parts of town where I could walk to better places.

Before I moved down here to be closer to work, I lived on the other end of town and lives across the way from a Lifestyle Center - an outdoor mall with shops and restaurants on lower levels and apartments up above. I'd spend many evenings there, going out to eat, walking around the shops, browsing the book store, or reading in the tea house. Living in one of the apartments inside the center would also have cost 2-3 times the price I was paying. It was a lovely place with two separate sections, each with a small urbarn park area and one with an outdoor fireplace across from a Starbucks. Some nights they would have live music in that park. I hated leaving that area, but my commute was 40 minutes twice a day and now it's 15 minutes twice a day.

Re: Do you live.....?

Vivian — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:58:42 GMT

Growing up, I was within walking distance of our town. It was great to go with my friends to the various shops or the movies. However, for the vast majority of my life I've had to get in a car to go anywhere. When I travel, I love to be able to walk everywhere. This year my husband and I vacationed in Québec City. We left our car in the hotel's garage and didn't see it again until it was time to leave. Québec is a very walkable city. If you want to see a gorgeous city that's as close as you can get to French culture in North America, I recommend Québec City to you. I can't wait to return.

Re: Do you live.....?

Peaches McPhee — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:28:51 GMT

I live in suburbia, and we have everything within a short drive or a longish walk.

One of my criteria for our retirement house (someday) is to live within walking distance of a "main street" area, with shops, restaurants, banks, etc.

Re: Do you live.....?

Mominohio — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:50:27 GMT

We, for the past 21 years, have lived in the country. The road was paved over from the original dirt just before we came here.

There are mostly farms around us, and Amish places. I used to walk, just for the exercise and the view (barns, corn fields, cows and horses in fields) about 3 miles a day, and the only thing on the walk where one could 'shop' was an Amish farm that sells eggs, so we'd get eggs on our walks some days.

When I was growing up, we lived on a dead end street (it ended in a beautiful park and a large one at that, that was like our personal country fields and woods with a creek and all). The other end of the our street connected to one of the main 'drags' through town. When I was a teen, I only had to walk to the end of my street, and then down three blocks to work at Taco Bell. There was a Pizza Hut and Wendy's there as well. We also walked through that park to get to our elementary school, and our high schools was just the opposite way from my work about the same three blocks. It was the perfect place to grow up as it combined town living and convenience with a rural type atmosphere with the huge parks surrounding the historic old neighborhoods.

I'm not ready to be back in a situation where everything is within walking distance yet. I like the privacy and open space. I can see that there might be a time coming when I will embrace being back in a town setting, it just isn't yet.

Re: Do you live.....?

magicmoodz — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 21:11:39 GMT

I live in the heart of a little "city" within the city. We have many nice restaurants, several banks, a movie theater, a large grocery, a jewelry store, a shoe shop, a drug store, medical facilities, bakeries, yoga studios, interior design stores, a gas station, and very, very expensive condos.

We have some well known stores like Talbot's, Banana Republic, Sur la Table, Lush, Cos Bar, but my favorites are small locally-owned boutiques and shops. We also have a farmers market every Saturday morning.

I can't imagine living where I would not be surrounded by all the amenities I now have all within walking distance with sidewalks and traffic lights. I am so conflicted, wanting to downsize, but not wanting to leave my wonderful neighborhood.

Re: Do you live.....?

gidgetgh — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 21:23:00 GMT

We live in a large suburb of Atlanta. They only thing we could walk to is the McDonald's up the street and the gas station next to it. The suburbs of Atlanta are mostly driving towns.

Re: Do you live.....?

twinny70 — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 21:51:09 GMT

DH & I live in the hometown that I was born in. I lived across the street from the grade school so walked every day. When we got in Jr. Hi it was about a mile away. We still walked each day &; came for lunch too &; then walked back again. When we got into HS. we walked to school every day but it was only about 4 blocks. When we were raising our 2 DC they also walked or biked to the different schools until it was cold out &; then I took them. DH walked to work for the 32 years he worked at the same place. I either walked or took my moped to my job as it was also close. Now with walking issues DH &; I moped to the downtown area which has shops, barbershop, restaurants, library, &; hair salons. We are only a mile from McDonald's, BK, DQ, Culver's, &; several nice restaurants, Shopko, tire shop, car wash, Farm & Fleet, 4 grocery stores &; lots of gas stations nearby. We now moped to make my life easier. We also have lots of parks within walking distance or in our our case a moped ride away. The clinic is probably 2 miles away so I either drive the Subaru or moped there too. A very friendly visitors town. Forgot to add that there is a bar two blocks away & a bowling alley 2 blocks away that we don't go to. There is an outside drive in theater less than a mile away too. Also a nice Swiss style building which is on the Historic Registry that is used for a restaurant, bowling alley & dancing. Too much fun & not enough time. LOL.

Re: Do you live.....?

151949 — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 22:28:21 GMT

@magicmoodz wrote:
I live in the heart of a little "city" within the city. We have many nice restaurants, several banks, a movie theater, a large grocery, a jewelry store, a shoe shop, a drug store, medical facilities, bakeries, yoga studios, interior design stores, a gas station, and very, very expensive condos.

We have some well known stores like Talbot's, Banana Republic, Sur la Table, Lush, Cos Bar, but my favorites are small locally-owned boutiques and shops. We also have a farmers market every Saturday morning.

I can't imagine living where I would not be surrounded by all the amenities I now have all within walking distance with sidewalks and traffic lights. I am so conflicted, wanting to downsize, but not wanting to leave my wonderful neighborhood.

Sounds like an ideal location.Sadly,if I want to shop I generally have to drive 20miles to the next town and go to the mall.I love our small town but I do miss the shopping and activities of Pittsburgh.Mostly when we want to be entertained we have to drive to Sarasota , about 30 miles away,or an hour and a half to Tampa for a sports event.

Re: Do you live.....?

Desertdi — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 22:36:55 GMT

Although I'm within the city limits, I'm in a mountain preserve and there is nothing within walking distance from me. Nearest grocery store is 5 miles.

Re: Do you live.....?

Tigriss — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 22:48:03 GMT

@151949 wrote:
Do you live near an area of shops, bars , restaurants etc where you can walk to go out for entertainment? I think I would love to live in a walking community. Or do you live in the country far from your neighbors? I grew up on a farm but where our house was situated on the property there was a cluster of 4 homes all easily walkable. My parents were close with our neighbors.Or do you live in a suburban plan of homes? A city highrise or a beach house out in the middle of the woods? Small town or big city? Where do you live?
I live in a planned community, in a small town. I always say we have one of everything - one grocery store, one dry cleaners , one carwash , one hardware store etc etc but only one of each. Except restaurants - tons of restaurants. At our age we don't usually walk into town but if we were younger we could , it is about 2 miles. We are also only 1 1/2 miles from a beautiful beach.

I would love to live in an English village where I can walk to get everything that I need without a car. Right now, as I have always, lived in the county and have to drive anywhere. I have neighbors now, but grew up on a farm without neighbors within a few miles.

Re: Do you live.....?

Tigriss — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 22:51:14 GMT

I also mean to add, that the bulk of America is not a walk-able country. Much of Europe, Asia, and UK are very pedestrian centered, but not us.

Re: Do you live.....?

gmkb — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:01:50 GMT

I live in an over 55 community. We are about 5 miles from doctors, shopping, restaurants. So a car is necessary for all those things. Our social life centers around the community, which has a golf course, a small restaurant, and the usual activities. We are surrounded by a wildlife preserve, so it is very pretty and occasionally we will find a bobcat, coyote, or black bear 'trespassing'.

Re: Do you live.....?

Snowpuppy — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:04:46 GMT

I live very rural now, by design.

The last suburb I lived in was building a planned neighborhood so that you could walk to shopping. Mega grocery, HD, drugstore.....all in walking distance.

The homes were McMansions and were a small fortune. They didn't exactly sell like hotcakes. It took 2 incomes to buy that McMansion and women didn't want to come home, "walk" to get a week's worth of groceries and then walk home.

Re: Do you live.....?

GCR18 — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:16:45 GMT

I live in a small town in the country. There are a handful of fast food type restaurants and that's about it. No grocery stores, no clothing stores and the list goes on. The next town over has the stores. Needless to say, there's no where to walk to.

Re: Do you live.....?

circles — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:16:53 GMT

I live near a lot of grocery stores...several restaurants....a movie theater...service stations...none of which are walking distance...nor are any of them a place of an evening out entertainment...other then the theater....

Re: Do you live.....?

Kachina624 — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 00:17:57 GMT

I live in a suburban housing development. A mile up the road I have shops (Walmart), restaurants (Wendy's, Carl's Jr.), Walgreen's, Applebee's, KFC, Goodwill. What more could a person want? Although the location is on our city walking path, nobody walks.

I also feel fortunate to live between (5 miles in each direction) two large, major brand-new hospitals.

Re: Do you live.....?

PeterDM — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 00:18:22 GMT

I live in downtown Little Rock just a few blocks from bars, restaurants, theatres, museums and a farmers market. My workplace, which is 3 blocks away on Main St., is adjacent to where we are currently in the process of building an Arts Corridor. I'm fortunate to live in a very vibrant community.